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John Gruber posted an interesting tweet yesterday regarding how important the aesthetic design of a product is:

We’ve always judged cell phones by how they look, and we keep them in our pockets. Wearables — glasses, watches, anything — can’t be ugly.

— John Gruber (@gruber) January 6, 2014

Of course, some folks aren’t interested in the design of a product, but in general it holds true. Some of the appeal of the iPhone is how stunning it is to look at. Part of the appeal of the Moto X is how clean and simple the design is while still being highly customizable.

The “rumors” of a bigger iPad are a joke, but they’re spreading like wildfire. If you need proof why it isn’t happening (anytime in the next few years at least), just take a look at Samsung’s newest 12.2" abomination.

Comments on the tablet from the report:

• “Simply isn’t designed for optimum portability” 
• “too awkward to hold for long periods of time”
• “we were hard-pressed to find any variation between the 12.2-incher and the Note 10.1 2014 edition”

Personally, I’m holding out for the 12.2" phone version.

We are getting closer to Angela Ahrendts’ start date at Apple (this Spring) and MacRumors has posted this nice overview of how she will fit in at Apple, and more importantly what she brings to the table. 

I’m very excited about this hire and think Ahrendts has a lot to offer. I expect her style, coupled with iBeacon technology, to completely reshape the retail experience and give the whole thing more of a ‘premium brand’ feel.

There is no doubt that privacy is getting more visibility than ever with the NSA leaks of late. A lot of people are opting for more secure services, apps, and hardware. This often comes at a price as these services are harder to engineer and maintain, they’re not usually given away for free. The exception is Kim Dotcom’s MEGA service with 50GB of free ultra secure cloud storage.

AT&T announced sponsored data plans today that allow providers to pay for the data that you use on your mobile device while using their services. Imagine streaming Netflix without it counting toward your 2GB data cap, seems neat right? Well the financial savings represent the most obvious upside, the privacy issue presents the largest down side. Your data and your usage are now bought and paid for by someone else, meaning they own it.

The Pro version of the Kayak.com app is free for a limited time. I have no affiliation, but this gets you airport terminal maps (compared to the free version). The price is right.

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This is somewhat outside the scope of this blog, but if you love tech stuff, you probably love LEDs. I love LEDs. I recently completed the installation of LED light strips in my kitchen to improve counter lighting and for ambiance, wanted to share what I used and a few things I learned.

Materials #

• LED Light Strips - 3100K, double density (link)
• Power Supply (link)
• Wire (link)
• LED Strip Connectors (link)
• Dimming Switch (link)
• Conduit/Raceway (link)

Installation #

The installation is relatively simple and there are a lot of DIY guides out there already. I won’t rehash all of that information. However, there are some things worth mentioning that I had to learn the hard way. Double density strips are absolutely the way to go; it is far better lighting for when you’re cooking and LEDs can be dimmed for ambiance as needed. With the double density LED strips, the “suggested items” on Amazon will lead you astray. Many of the connectors and adapters will not work. The LED strip connectors linked above are not available on Amazon, but shipped very quickly directly from HitLights (whom I was very pleased with after having purchased several items and talking with their customer service extensively via email).

Apple has declined to have any knowledge of the newest NSA leak regarding the DROPOUTJEEP program. I am inclined to believe them for one main reason - they aren’t stupid. At the rate the leaks are coming, it is obvious we’re not finished. Neither the NSA nor Apple knows how much more will be leaked, so for them to deny knowledge now would guarantee their demise should the truth come out any differently.

Apple has a tradition where they release a 12 Days of Gifts app then each day around Christmas they give people a free version of some paid content - apps, music, books, or videos.  You’d think people would be grateful.

Many people are grateful, presumably. However, there is an increasing number of people that are leaving one star reviews on apps, movies, etc. if the free content of the day isn’t an app they personally wanted. Angry people leaving one star on a children’s game because they don’t play it sounds absurd, but sadly, is a reality.

Apple is so close to knocking it out of the park with several of their software products, but I agree with Marco’s comments. iPhoto is a great example; it is the near the top of the list of reasons to own a Mac, but it isn’t perfect and hasn’t seen a meaningful update in a while. 

Apple seems to be faced with an interesting dilemma - these software products seem like unfinished versions of how Apple envisions this type of product to look on their platform. They seem unfinished because they’re “good enough” (generally speaking) and don’t make headlines or money to warrant being any better. That’s acceptable from a lot of companies, but it is very un-Apple-like.

If you’re a Twitter user, you need to be using Tweetbot 3.0. It isn’t just the best Twitter client, which it is by a long shot, it is my favorite iPhone app period. The iPad version is still on 2.0 with the pre-iOS 7 design, and even that is a league above most other Twitter clients. When I did a trial switch to Android, the lack of Tweetbot was among my top complaints, I found myself not wanting to use Twitter anywhere near as much without it.